Int. J. of Human Resource Management 14:5 August 2003 728–750 Career fields: a small step towards a grand career theory? Alexander Iellatchitch, Wolfgang Mayrhofer and Michael Meyer Abstract Little theory development has been done that accounts for the changes in the forms, actors and contexts of careers that we currently can see. Looking at careers from a ‘grand’ and unified theoretical perspective has a number of advantages. In particular, grand social theories allow the link between a well-elaborated and differentiated framework for social phenomena and for careers. Moreover, looking at careers from a unified perspective allows discussion of the great variety of aspects to careers in a single theoretical language. Based on the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper focuses on social fields as one major element of an effort towards a more comprehensive theoretical framework for professional and managerial careers. In particular, it discusses the constituting characteristics of career fields as social fields and the application of this concept to work-related careers. Rather than adopting or adapting a specific theory in order to illuminate a specific national context, this paper, by using Bourdieu’s concepts, proposes a framework to illuminate particular aspects sometimes not sufficiently stressed by recent – and more especially Anglo-Saxon – career research. Avoiding a choice between objective or subjective career and macro- or micro-perspective, it allows the strengthening or re-introduction of themes like multi-level analysis, simultaneous action- structure view, combining ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ perspectives, power distribution, social hierarchy and thus social inequalities into career research. Keywords Career fields; career capital; Pierre Bourdieu. Introduction: why look at careers in a new way from a ‘grand’ and unified theoretical perspective? Careers are a central phenomenon of individual, organizational and societal reality. Far from being restricted to individual phenomena like rapid promotion, careers are located at the intersection of societal history and individual biography (Grandjean, 1981: 1057) and thus link micro- and macro-frames of references (Schein, 1978) which traditionally have been regarded as indissoluble (Hughes, 1937; Barley, 1989; Gunz, 1989b). This makes careers appealing to researchers interested in theoretical, empirical and methodological progress. More precisely, at the theoretical level a thorough analysis of careers requires contributions from a great range of disciplinary perspectives, like, for example, developmental psychology, management theory, economics or sociology (Dyer, 1976; Arthur et al., 1989b; Ornstein and Isabella, 1993). Thus, multi- and interdisciplinary Alexander Iellatchitch, Wolfgang Mayrhofer and Michael Meyer, Interdisciplinary Department of Management and Organizational Behaviour, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (WU-Wien), Althanstrasse 51, A-1090 Vienna, Austria (tel: +431 313 36 4553; fax: +431 313 36 724; www.wu-wien.ac.at/inst/ ivm/local.htm; please direct correspondence to the first author, e-mail: alexander.iellatchitch@wu- wien.ac.at). The International Journal of Human Resource Management ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online © 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/0958519032000080776